waiter
/ˈweɪtə/
"waiter" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“waiter” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,886 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,886
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | waiter |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈweɪtə/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,886 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “waiter” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for waiter is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈweɪtə/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,886 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for waiter, with forms such as "awiter", "waietr", and "waiterr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Water", "white", "write", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From late 14th century Middle English waiter, wayter (“attendant, watchman”). By surface analysis, wait + -er. Sense of "servant who waits at tables" is from late 15th century, originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating hous… The correct English form is waiter, spelled W-A-I-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A male or female attendant who serves customers at their tables in a restaurant, café or similar.
- 2Someone who waits for somebody or something; a person who is waiting.
- 3A person working as an attendant at the London Stock Exchange.
- 4A vessel or tray on which something is carried, as dishes, etc.; a salver. (See etymology of dumbwaiter.)
- 5A custom house officer; a tide waiter.
- 6A watchman.
Etymology
From late 14th century Middle English waiter, wayter (“attendant, watchman”). By surface analysis, wait + -er. Sense of "servant who waits at tables" is from late 15th century, originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating houses, etc., it is attested from 1660s. Feminine form waitress first recorded 1834. The London Stock Exchange sense harks back to the early days of trading in coffee-shops.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: awiter,waietr,waiterr,waitre,waitter,watier,wiater,wwaiter
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of waiter - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “waiter”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-A-I-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈweɪtə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Water” - see the side-by-side comparison. waiter vs Water
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.